Welcome to the 2003 Indie RPG Awards!

This is the second year for the Indie RPG Awards, and it has been
an exciting trip. It's been a tremendous success because of the help
and support of last year's independent game designers, as well as
the overall rpg community which supports them and these awards.

You can find out more about what the awards are about, and why I created
them, on the main page. Long story short, the awards are a way for
all sorts of folks - from Indie RPG designers and other industry folk,
to fans of various independent games, to perhaps folks who are curious
about independently published games - To gather around and look back
on the various games, supplements and zines that 2003 had to offer.

The awards themselves are a byproduct of this celebration. While we're
not here to find the Ontologically Best Indie Games, we still think
that we can have a friendly gathering of Indie industry folk to gather
around and throw their 2 bits in on games that they found to be remarkable
for one reason or another.

In the end, awards have little meaning outside the community that
gives and receives them: They don't guarantee sales, they don't shake
the RPG industry, and they don't mean that one game is objectively
better than another. However, they do give a little recognition to
the hard-working folks who put their time and sweat into their products
of love and labor. And that is enough to matter.

PROPS!

First off, I need to give mad props out to the following folks:

All of my sponsors, without which I wouldn't have any money or
prizes to give away!

Justin Dagna. Without his help, I wouldn't have gotten past registration. He helped sort everyone out and turn registration from a mountain
into a managable molehill.

Emily Care Boss. Emily helped with vote tallying in the preliminaries
and finals, as well as collecting and organizing feedback. Without
her help, I'd have been a lot more stressed out, and would not have
been able to post all the excellent game feedback.

Ron Edwards and Matt Forbeck. Ron helped pump the awards at various
sites and to tons of folk. On top of that, Ron and Matt together worked
with me to help score a Live Venue for the Indie RPG Awards Ceremony
at GenCon, and Matt especially did a great job of organizing the event
and making us feel welcome.

Everyone who registered for the awards, or told their buddy/favorite
designer to come in and register. Or anyone who helped spread the
word of these awards. You helped these awards grow. I owe you all
a beer. Since that would cost too much, please accept my heartfelt
thanks instead.

FINALS

After the preliminary round (you can read the FAQ to learn about voting),
all of the 55+ registered designers and industry folk (remember, these
awards are voted on by industry peers, not just fans) got a chance
to come in and vote for one game or supplement in each category. When
possible, they were encouraged to leave positive feedback for their
choices, explaining why they picked the game.

When voting happens, the voter is asked for every category if she
"is familiar with three or more" of the games in a particulat
category. 'Familiar', in this case, is of course subjective; I put
the definition to anywhere between "Know enough about the game
to explain it to someone" to "Own it/Played it". If
a voter indicates that they were familiar with three or more of the
games, their vote carried a slightly higher weight: One vote is "3
points", the Weighted Vote is "5 points". We trusted
the voters to be truthful, and after reviewing every vote, it's clear
that nobody "lied". The item with the most points takes
the award for that category.

And just for fun, I'm including all the feedback that was generated
in the course of the Final Voting stage. The feedback, more than "points"
or "awards", really shows why these games and supplements
are exceptional works.